Nitinol Stenting in Post-Traumatic Pseudo-Aneurysm of Internal Carotid Artery

Abstract

Background: A pseudoaneurysm of the internal carotid artery (ICA) at its cervicl part, is a rare and often lethal com-plication after cervical trauma. The treatment of choice is anticoagulation. Patients with a contraindication for anticoagulation or those who do not improve with standard treatment, warrant either a surgical repair or stent placement.Stent placement posses both short and long term risks such as immediate ischemic events, in-stent stenosis and stent breakage, thus the choice of stent type is critical. Advances in stent technology have made cervical stent placement a viable option. We report our experience with the LEO + (Balt Extrusion, Montmorency, France) nitinol flexible self expanding stent for post-traumatic ICA aneurysms. Methods: 5 patients suffering a post-traumatic cervical ICA pseudo-aneurysms refractory to standard treatment were treated with nitinol braided flexible self expanding stent. This stent has a shape memory and superelasticity virtues making it suitable. Diagnosis was made with CT angiography and confirmed by catheter angiography. All procedures were preformed under local anesthesia. Time between trauma and treatment ranged six days to over five years. Follow-up was performed by CT angiography or conventional angiography. Results: Five patients, having eight aneurysms were treated using 12 stents. In all cases, appropriate stent placement was achieved. No immediate or late complications, as well as no neurological sequele reported at 6 months. Radiological follow-up exams demonstrated complete pseudoaneurysm closure. Conclusion: Stent placement can be a safe and definitive treatment option for patients to conventional medical treatment.

Share and Cite:

O. Cohen-Inbar, Y. Amsalem and J. Soustiel, "Nitinol Stenting in Post-Traumatic Pseudo-Aneurysm of Internal Carotid Artery," Open Journal of Modern Neurosurgery, Vol. 2 No. 3, 2012, pp. 45-49. doi: 10.4236/ojmn.2012.23009.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] D. M. Coldwell, Z. Novak, R. K. Ryu, et al., “Treatment of Posttraumatic Internal Carotid Arterial Pseudoaneurysms with Endovascular Stents,” Journal of TraumaInjury Infection & Critical Care, Vol. 48, No. 3, 2000, pp. 470-472. doi:10.1097/00005373-200003000-00016
[2] J. V. Patel, M. M. Rossbach, T. J. Cleveland, P. A. Gaines and J. D. Beard, “Endovascular Stent-Graft Repair of Traumatic Carotid Artery Pseudoaneurysm,” Clinical Radiology, Vol. 57, No. 4, 2002, pp. 308-311. doi:10.1053/crad.2001.0808
[3] C. T. Dotter, R. W. Buschmann, M. K. McKinney and J. Rosch, “Transluminal Expandable Nitinol Coil Stent Grafting: Preliminary Report,” Radiology, Vol. 147, No. 1, 1983, pp. 259-260.
[4] K. F. Layton, Y. W. Kim and J. H. Hise, “Use of Covered Stent Grafts in the Extracranial Carotid Artery: Report of Three Patients with Follow-Up between 8 and 42 Months,” American Journal of Neuroradiology, Vol. 25, No. 10, 2004, pp. 1760-1763.
[5] R. L. Bush, P. H. Lin, T. F. Dodson, J. E. Dion and A. B. Lumsden, “Endoluminal Stent Placement and Coil Embolization for the Management of Carotid Artery Pseudoaneurysms,” Journal of Endovascular Therapy, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2001, pp. 53-61. doi:10.1583/1545-1550(2001)008<0053:ESPACE>2.0.CO;2
[6] M. Alvarado, N. Ebrahimi and G. Benndorf, “Study of Conformability of the New LEO Plus Stent to a Curved Vascular Model Using Flat-Panel Detector Computed Tomography (DynaCT),” Neurosurgery, Vol. 64, No. 3, 2009, pp. 130-134.
[7] S. A. Shabalovskaya, “On the Nature of the Biocompatibility and on Medical Applications of NiTi Shape Memory and Superelastic Alloys,” Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 4, 1996, pp. 267-289.
[8] D. Stoeckel, A. Pelton and T. Duerig, “Self-Expanding Nitinol Stents: Material and Design Considerations,” European Radiology, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2004, pp. 292-301. doi:10.1007/s00330-003-2022-5

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.